SPEND, SPEND, SPEND
Re: G. Tracy Mehan Of Rachmaninof and Economics:
Oh, ye of little faith! We Americans can spend our way to
prosperity. And if we fail to do so, it will be because we
haven’t spent enough.
Ready…Set…Charge!
— David Govett
Davis, California
BUT THAT’S NOT SAYING MUCH
Re: Philip Klein’s The 9/11
Presidency:
I was embarrassed for Mr. Klein to read the following statement
in his essay “The 9/11 Presidency.”
“Whatever criticisms can be made about President Bush — and
there are plenty of valid ones — it must be said that he
prevented another terrorist attack on American soil, which became
the focus of his presidency since Sept. 11.”
It is true that there have apparently been no terrorist attacks
on American soil since 9/11, but to assert that it is because Mr.
Bush “prevented” them is embarrassing to read. It is embarrassing
because we cannot know if that statement is true, it implies only
Mr. Bush acted on this issue, and because it is probably very
misleading in many respects… and perhaps even substantively
inaccurate.
(1) The statement is simply impossible to prove — no one can
know whether any actions he may have taken or may not have taken
reduced (or increased) the likelihood of such attacks … and there
is good reason to suspect many of his actions (if they were his
actions) actually increased the likelihood of future attacks on
American soil,
(2) obviously there are hundreds of thousands of Americans and
non-Americans who worked together to reduce the likelihood of
such attacks. Mr. Bush is only one person among many who had a
role to play, and whether or not he played a positive role in
this matter is open to very serious questioning,
(3) if we wish to speculate about what he did that may have had
some impact on terrorist actions, his decision (if it was his) to
invade Iraq paired with his decision (if it was his) to do so
with clearly insufficient troops against compelling advice he had
received about the need for about twice the number of troops his
administration committed to the action combined with his decision
(if it was his decision) not to concentrate on seeking out and
destroying Al-Qaeda and continuing the progress in rebuilding
Afghanistan rather than attacking Iraq almost certainly greatly
increased the number of attacks against Americans (and many
others) outside the United States, and
(4) those actions have very likely increased the likelihood of
future attacks from a still active Al-Qaeda and perhaps others
who have become enemies of America because of his decisions (if
they were his decisions).
To ignore Mr. Bush’s contributions to the creating of such
destruction and to the loss of American and many more other lives
because those tragedies occurred outside of America’s borders,
and to ignore the future problems for which the seeds have been
sown (if he did make decisions that contributed to those events
and problems) is bizarre and surely unworthy of a person of Mr.
Klein’s intellect and, I am sure, caring for others.
— James A.F. Stoner
WAR ON VOINOVICH
Re: Enemy Central’s Private
Diplomacy:
A former employer of mine, in a moment of candor referred to a
seasoned but slovenly co-worker I managed as “body.” “We hire
thinking that we are getting an asset. But sometimes,” he said,
“you just pile up bodies.”
Voinovich, Snowe, McCain, Graham-nesty are all bodies that give
the Republicans some semblance of a senatorial headcount…nothing
more. These guys are hogging the left-lane, blocking faster
moving traffic. Like the mini-van you cannot see around when
stuck in a jam, these bodies just take up space, go through some
motions and call it a day. Perhaps a chance at golf with some
semi-celeb will make it a week.
Disgusting.
— P. Aaron Jones
ONCE A CHEESE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEY
Re: Joseph A. Harriss’s Burger’s Revenge:
Yes things were great in the “old France,” chiefs doing their
magic in the kitchens and serving up the foods that made France,
well, France. Americans raved about the food UNTIL they visited
the chiefs in the kitchens then they took one look at the hygiene
(more like total lack) of the chiefs cooking the food or just a
passing glance at what was under their oh-so-sophisticated food
preparers finger nails and ran for their lives…
— Craig Sarver
Seattle, Washington
POSEUR DEBATED
Re: Ira Kessel’s letter (under “Member of the Machine, and
Proud”) in Reader Mail’s Teenage Wasteland:
I make no claims on how others should live their lives. I am not
an absolutist by any measure. I live and work in the real world
where compromise is the rule rather than the exception. I merely
pointed out that you claim to be a libertarian while living the
life of a liberal Democrat. Nothing more. I think the central
tenets of modern day libertarians are grossly at odds with being
a member of a collective and letting it make decisions about your
well being. Karl Marx was a big fan of absolutes and thought the
human condition could be perfected (through force). The root wood
in Communism is essentially the same word that binds a Union
today. Intimidation and extortion are never legitimate in a free
society. Let’s let those harmed by strikes sue the Union and its
members for damages and see how that flies with regard to “self
interest.” When is the last time you saw a business perform a
“lockout” with regard to the number of Union strikes that occur
every year?
You speak of “balance” like we still live and work in the hay
days of the industrial revolution and sweat shops of the early
twentieth century. Nothing could be further from the truth today.
The bulk of exported manufacturing jobs were union based. The
union based Big Three are going bankrupt, not the non union
competitors that happened to pay the same hourly rate the union
members get at the Big Three. Public sector unions all over the
country, but especially in Democrat controlled states, are
bankrupting their state governments, and this is your idea of
“balance” to the excesses of capitalism?
You responded to Chuck in your defense of unions with a phrase
that started off with “Ideally,” and then how the world should
work under perfect conditions. There are 6.7 billion concepts of
what an “ideal” world is like on this planet but only one real
world. In the real world there is action and consequence. The
long term consequences of unionized labor are mediocrity and a
slow and destructive decline of the businesses or functions they
control. The evidence of this is heaped miles high for all to see
in the states where unions rule. Those of us in the real world
that have to compete on an individual basis day in and day out
and meet deliverable objective standards figured this out a long
time ago. That’s called Capitalism. Unions aren’t about
capitalism in any sense of the word.
Ira, your choices are yours and hopefully will always be yours
but please stop calling yourself a “libertarian” and living the
life of a liberal Democrat. We are what we do not what we say we
are.
— Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia
SLAVERY AT MSNBC
Like George Washington, Obama is a first, the first black
president…at least since Bill Clinton. As taught in modern
textbooks, Washington was not great because he had slaves.
Obama’s slaves are called the media, so maybe slaves aren’t that
bad. They won’t, however, have to wait years to be emancipated by
a Lincoln, because the man from the Land of Lincoln is already
Lincolnesque. He rode a train, just like Abe. Someone get a
fainting couch and a glass of Vichey for Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Putting Calvin Coolidge’s economy of words to shame, Obama spends
entire speeches saying nothing. This proves the superiority of a
Democrat. Besides, nobody is comparing Obama to the also-rans
like Silent Cal, who never hit a three pointer.
Ready to solve the Hoover/Bush Depression à la FDR, Obama is
looking to do it in less than the eight years or so it took FDR,
and without the exclamation point of a world war at the end. And
to think this will all be done in the chic haute couture of JFK.
From that stylish UN powder blue and white Office of the
President Elect logo, to Michelle’s red and black, uh, creation,
we return to Camelot.
As the bone chilling climate change days of Martin Luther King
Month give way to arctic Black History Month, I propose we change
the mid-February shopping spree/ski weekend to Barack Obama Day.
In the spirit of political correctness, I’d also like to change
the name of the Happy Federal Holiday between Chanukah and Kwanza
to Ronald Reagan Day. Anyone else remember him?
— Robert Yatto
Crossville, Tennessee
SONG OF ROLAND
Re: Jay D. Homnick’s
Burris in the Saddle:
I am a conservative Constitutionalist Republican. However, to the
new liberal senator from Illinois, I say, “Way To Go!” for facing
down “the big boys” (Reid, et al). It was long overdue. He called
their bluff and they folded. Let’s see some poker playing like
that from the GOP!
— Michael Skaggs
Murray, Kentucky
